Modern computing devices such as smart phones, laptops, game systems, and tablet computers often include a proximity sensor. A proximity sensor may be capable of detecting the presence of a nearby object as well as an approximate distance between the sensor and the nearby object. Proximity sensors may be implemented using a variety of technologies including lasers, sonar, and ultrasound, for example.
While proximity sensors are often capable of measuring the distance between the sensor and a nearby object, the proximity sensors found in most computing devices are often limited by the operating system or programming interface to only determining whether or not an object is close to the proximity sensor. Applications that use the proximity sensor in this way include applications that disable a display when it is determined that the computing device is against an ear, or applications that increase a ring volume of the computing device when it is determined that the device may be in a pocket, for example.